Reality TV slowdown drives Hollywood production decline

By Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles experienced a hefty decline in reality TV production as Hollywood worked to recover from dual labor strikes last year, according to statistics released on Wednesday.

Actors, writers and crew members have been hoping for a rebound in filming across all genres after last year’s strikes halted most production starting in July.

But from April through June this year, the number of on-location filming days in the Los Angeles area fell 12.4% below already low levels of a year earlier, a report from permitting organization FilmLA found. The organization issued permits for 5,749 shooting days during the quarter this year.

In the comparable period in 2023, production had already started to wane ahead of a Writers Guild of America strike in May. Filming dropped further when actors walked off the job in July.

This year’s decline was driven by a 56.9% drop in reality TV production, the FilmLA report said.

The main reason, said FilmLA spokesman Philip Sokoloski, was likely the widespread curtailing of production from the high levels of recent years as investors demand profits from the media industry’s switch to streaming.

Also, some studios are waiting to start new projects in case of another strike. The Teamsters union is trying to negotiate a new labor agreement before its contract with Hollywood studios expires on July 31.

Filming of scripted shows increased during the April-June quarter. Drama productions rose 98.3% and comedy productions more than doubled.

Feature-film production fell 3.3% in the quarter and commercial production dropped 5.1%, FilmLA said.